


echoes of serenity

by jinkster



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: (other characters appear too but most of them have very few lines so I'm not tagging them), Domestic Fluff, Fluff, M/M, Post-Kingdom Hearts III, Really minor angst, a family can be you + your evil childhood friend + two replicas of the kid who kicked your ass, not a slowburn bc I have no patience, that will never be mentioned again after chapter 3, we're on a forever happiness lockdown
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-04
Updated: 2020-03-25
Packaged: 2020-11-01 21:53:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 17,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20518940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jinkster/pseuds/jinkster
Summary: To Isa’s eyes, Lea looked comically terrified. He felt like he could have smiled at the sight, but he still fought to show no emotion. It was going to take more time for Isa to feel worthy of happiness again.Luckily, Lea was planning to be by his side until then and, of course, even afterwards.





	1. prologue - the gang comes back to life

**Author's Note:**

> You know the last few cutscenes after Xehanort finally kicks the bucket? Yeah, I love those, but I'm still not sure if they're all happening immediately after the characters go back to their worlds, or if a couple of days pass in between. 
> 
> Because like... if I were Roxas and/or Xion and I saw Isa on top of the clock tower, without even a shred of an apology, I promise you no amount of ice cream would have stopped me from attacking him on sight. 
> 
> So! This fic is written on the headcanon that all final cutscenes (except the one at disney castle) happen some days after the final battle & they all had a good chance to talk things out!

The trip back on the gummiship had been simply excruciating. 

While traveling to the Land of Departure, they had tried to make sense of who was going where, an innocent conversation that had sparked two different arguments.

The first one was resolved in a matter of minutes, as Roxas had wanted to immediately go back to Twilight Town, with Xion agreeing with him, while Lea had said that they had to stop at Radiant Garden first, to get their new life sorted out. Soon, Lea won out of necessity. Where were they going to live in Twilight Town? On top of the clock tower? Inside the dusty old manor?

Even had also called to insist that the two replicas should come back to the laboratory for a final check, just to make sure that everything was okay with their new bodies, and everyone else inside the ship was too concerned to let them refuse.

The second one, however, was still being negotiated. Aqua, Terra, and Ventus were trying to convince Riku to stay with them, at least for a while. They framed it to imply that Keyblade Masters had to stick together, but everyone knew that they just didn’t want him to go home without his two friends.

Just as they landed, King Mickey expressed his positive opinion on the offer and Riku, a bit taken aback by that, had no other choice but agree. In the end, he realised that he didn’t want to be alone either.

“Radiant Garden is next, then!”, said Mickey, trying to sound cheerful.

Sitting at his sides, Donald and Goofy didn’t share his mood; they couldn’t help but notice how steady the ship was when the King was driving. It almost felt as if they weren’t even moving at all, compared to Sora’s usual driving style. They never thought they’d miss it.

Just like that, Lea, Roxas, and Xion were dropped off right in front of Radiant Garden’s castle, where two familiar guards were already waiting for them. “Did you win for real this time, or is he coming back?”, asked Dilan as he approached them, followed by Aeleus.

Lea scratched the back of his head. “It seems like we won for real, but it still feels like a dream”

Roxas elbowed him. “Don’t think too much about it, you’ll just get a headache”

“Is that so?”, he laughed, as he elbowed him back.

“Stop it, you two!”, complained Xion, her actions betraying her words as she started elbowing both of them.

Dilan smirked. “You seem pretty lively to be walking away from a Keyblade War”, and Aeleus nodded in agreement.

A dark look clouded Roxas’ expression as he stiffened. “I guess we’re just trying not to think about what happened”

Xion hummed. “Sora will be back, there’s no need to worry!”

“Sora? What did that kid do, this time?”

But no-one had the chance to reply to Dilan, because the castle’s door opened from the inside and someone stomped out. “Will you three stop wasting my time and come to the laboratory already?”, he spoke acidly. 

“Oh, hi Vexen”, Lea greeted him, “I didn’t see you so far up your high horse”

“It’s Even”, the man corrected, his scowl unmoving.

“Whatever. And by the way, we’ve just arrived. It’s not like we kept you waiting for hours”

Again, Even ignored Lea’s complaints and simply turned around to walk back inside. “Let’s try to get back on schedule, then”

It was Roxas’ and Xion’s first time inside the castle and, though they had probably seen some of it when they were still in Sora’s heart, they clearly couldn’t hide their curiosity. It was to be expected, all things considered: for once, they didn’t have the thought of a fight looming over them, and they could finally act like the inexperienced teenagers they were.

Lea looked at them with a soft expression, one that he would absolutely deny to have made. He was so happy to have his friends back and to know that they were safe and sound. But…there definitely was something else going on in his mind at the same time.

As the four of them walked through the imposing hallways, not yet entirely restored to their original state, Lea was glancing around just as much as his two friends, but, instead of taking in the scenery, that wasn’t new at all to him, he was just hoping to spot a particular someone. 

Even, noticing Lea’s obvious movements just with the corner of his eye, turned slightly to face him. “It’s too early for him to be reformed already, be patient”

Lea murmured another ‘whatever’ and shifted his gaze to the pavement. Both Xion and Roxas had the grace to keep quiet about it, though Lea was sure they’d bring it up at another moment.

Once they reached the laboratory and were greeted by Ienzo, who was a lot more polite than Even, the actual check-up went pretty smoothly. As far as the two scientists could tell, the kids’ hearts were perfectly bonded with their replica bodies. 

After a stern recommendation that they’d come back as soon as they felt even a little under the weather, the three of them were told to visit Ansem’s study.

“You remember the way, right, Lea?”, asked Even, his scowl barely mitigated by the positive result of the check-up.

“Yeah, of course”, Lea replied, pouting. 

He actually didn’t, as it turned out. He had to have taken a wrong turn somewhere, because in just a couple of minutes he had already led his two friends in a corridor that was in a worse shape than the rest, and he had no idea on how to retrace his steps.

“Are we lost?”, asked Xion, not really worried. The castle might have been enormous, but it wasn’t nearly as labyrinthine as the Organization’s old base.

Lea took a pause that was definitely too long. “Of course not”

“Where are we, then?”

“Lost”, interrupted Roxas, almost laughing again. “There’s no use in denying it”, he added as soon as Lea was about to speak up again. “Let’s just try to get back”

As they kept wandering through the hallways, making idle conversation and picking on Lea, the sound of footsteps approaching had them stopping immediately.

“Who’s there?”, called a voice from just around the corner. “Oh, you must be the three ex-nobodies the king was talking about”

It was a tall man with short, brown hair. Lea faintly remembered seeing him around Radiant Garden both before it fell to darkness and after he reformed in the secret laboratory, but he didn’t think he had ever learnt his name. Roxas and Xion, on the other hand, shared a brief look between themselves, then went back to stare at the man. “You’re…Leon, right?”, asked Xion.

The man nodded. “What are you doing here, by the way? This hallway is still off-limits”

The kids immediately looked at Lea with an evil glint in their eyes and he sighed. “We got lost. Could you tell us where Ansem’s study is?”

“Sure, I can take you there”, Leon replied.

“How did you know his name?”, Lea whispered to Xion as they started walking behind Leon.

She smiled. “He’s Sora’s friend”

The audience with the king of Radiant Garden ended up as brief as the check-up at the laboratory. Ansem had only wanted to tell them that they were welcome to stay at the castle as long as they wanted and that, when they were ready to decide where to settle down, he’d be happy to pay for everything, including Roxas’ and Xion’s high school enrolment.

Roxas didn’t seem too happy about that last detail. He had never actually gone to school, but his fake memories of the digital Twilight Town suggested to him that he wasn’t going to have a lot of fun.

Xion’s reaction was completely different, as she looked elated at the idea of a new experience and the opportunity to make new friends.

Lea was sure her overjoyed mood wasn’t going to last after she actually set foot in a classroom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At first, this prologue and the first chapter were supposed to be a single chapter, but I felt like it worked slightly better if they were separated. The new problem is that the prologue feels too short on its own, so I decided to post both of them today. Compromise!


	2. chapter I - the gang gains a new member

The man opened his eyes slowly. He couldn’t know, but they blinked yellow for a second, then the color faded into their original green.

Was he still Saïx?

His entire body ached, and hazy memories of a battle desperately tried to resurface, only succeeding in worsening his headache. But in addition to all that, he could feel an incredible weight on his chest, one that he hadn’t felt properly in a long time.

Tears prickled at his eyes. Isa, then.

Still not completely awake, he could faintly hear familiar voices around him. He tried his best to sit up; only someone catching him prevented him from falling back onto the pavement. The quick movement made his head spin and he had to close his eyes again. He could recall that he had spent his last moments as a Nobody in that same position.

A vision of red hair was displayed behind his eyelids, though when he opened them again, it was a different man, equally familiar, that was staring at him. He had his name on the tip of his tongue, he was sure of it, but neither thought nor voice came to his aid, leaving him to stare back at the man, silent and confused.

“How are you feeling?”, the man asked, seemingly worried.

“Bad”, came the one word reply. Isa was surprised he managed that much.

He could now remember slightly more, including the first time he had to wake up like that, suddenly complete and very much ‘not dead’. He knew he had felt worse back then, as he had been a Nobody for more than ten years; that didn’t stop his eagerness to complain about his current discomfort.

“You’ll have to get used to it, this time”, the man continued. “I don’t think you’ll have a third chance”

Isa was slowly feeling a bit more grounded, so he went for a longer sentence. “Not sure if I even deserve a second one”

“Oh please”, someone else intruded after a sigh, somewhere behind Isa’s back. “As if it wasn’t your plan to betray Xehanort. And to help with the replicas”

Another familiar face came into view, but he only saw green where he’d expected yellow. Even?

“So you made it too”, Isa muttered.

“No need to sound so relieved!”

“Leave him be, he just woke up again. Not that he’s ever been polite, but…”, said the man still holding him up. Dilan. There was his name.

“We should also have him sit somewhere else, instead of leaving him on the floor”, spoke yet another voice, definitely younger.

“God, how many people are in here? Did the whole population come running as soon as you noticed that I was waking up?”

A short laugh. “It’s just us. And Aeleus too, but he probably won’t speak up”, continued the younger voice, clearly Ienzo, still outside of Isa’s sight.

“Great, I feel so much better already”

And while it had mostly been a sarcastic jab, Isa was indeed feeling less dizzy and more able to recall most of his recent memories. He was also feeling strength coming back to his body, and managed to get to his feet with only minimal help from Dilan.

“Do you know how long I’ve been out for?”, he finally dared to ask.

“The battle ended a couple of days ago”, replied Ienzo, and Isa turned around to look at him. He looked a lot healthier than the last time Saïx had seen Zexion, almost two years earlier. It felt weird to be glad for that.

“And you reformed here at the laboratory ten minutes or so ago, we were just about to move you somewhere more comfortable, but you had already started waking up”

“Great”, Isa muttered again. For some reason, he had expected - hoped - to take longer, even if it did sound logical to have the opposite happen. 

Even was still pouting. “Aren’t you going to ask about the battle? Don’t you care at all?”

Isa scoffed. “We wouldn’t be here if Xehanort had won. We wouldn’t be anywhere, in fact. Also, Sora never looked like someone who would be defeated”

At that statement, the three men around him collectively shifted their gazes to other parts of the room.

“Did someone die?”, he continued, suddenly worried. He had never thought that could happen.

Aeleus walked closer to them, leaving his post by the door. “Kairi”

Isa was overwhelmed by guilt. He distinctly remembered fighting against her before going berserk. She had fought well. She must have been trained by someone competent and she had proved to be a fearless opponent, even if it was clear that she had still lacked battle experience. Despite that, Isa could have never imagined her to lose.

“Xehanort killed her”, explained Ienzo, once it was obvious that Aeleus wasn’t going to elaborate. “But Sora thought he could get her heart back, so he left on his own as soon as the battle was won”

That didn’t sound comforting.

“Any other casualties?”, he found himself asking, not quite sure if he was ready to know, his voice steadier than it should have been.

Ienzo smiled. “No, thankfully. Though we have no idea where Demyx ended up”

Even groaned. “He probably doesn’t even know that the battle ended already”

Isa couldn’t help but find that thought strangely funny, even after the bad news he was just told. It wasn’t like Demyx’s life was in danger anyway, as a fatal blow would only help him recomplete as well.

After the conversation had continued for a while, Dilan and Aeleus went back outside, to resume their duty as guards, while the two scientists started talking between themselves about whatever their current project was. Ienzo had briefly tried to explain that they were still trying to transfer Naminé’s heart into another replica, but a minor setback had considerably slowed their work.

Not yet able to follow a conversation as information-heavy as that one, Isa simply excused himself and walked out of the laboratory.

“Where will you go now?”, asked Dilan, outside.

“Who knows”, he muttered, walking away.

He hadn’t had that kind of freedom in such a long time he almost didn’t know what to do with it.

But apparently, freedom or not, there was still one thing left to do, something he absolutely couldn’t postpone nor escape from.

Wandering through the castle halls, discovering that he remembered perfectly where everything was despite the decade of absence, he started hearing voices as he got closer to the old dorm rooms. And not just any voices.

He hastened his pace, as silent as he could, and tried to leave the occupied room behind. He wasn’t counting that the door had been left open.

A voice spoke up from inside the room. “Give me a moment, kids”

Someone groaned; someone else chuckled. Light steps rushed out of the door and into the corridor. Isa stopped walking but did not turn around.

“You always loved teasing me”

Isa could practically hear the smirk in Lea’s voice. “I wasn’t teasing”, he simply replied.

Lea snorted. “Sure you weren’t. Walking right in front of me without even a glance”

Finally turning around, Isa was greeted by the sight of Lea leaning his shoulder on the closest wall, for once wearing normal clothes.

If his heart stuttered, his words did not. “I wasn’t looking for you”

“That’s…not what I was expecting you to say”, Lea replied, genuinely taken aback. “I can understand if you need some time, but I thought we were on the same page on wanting to fix things, after our last chat”

Isa felt a bit guilty at the sadness dripping from Lea’s words. “I would have liked that”, he conceded, “but I think I should just leave”

Lea stared at him in disbelief. “You’re joking, right? What is that going to accomplish?”

“I made your lives hell”, Isa explained, with a calm voice that didn’t reflect his feelings at all. He tilted his head for a brief moment, looking at the open door behind Lea.

Roxas and Xion were definitely eavesdropping, weren’t they?

“That’s not an excuse to run away”

Isa flinched. “I’d call it more of a voluntary exile-“

“Of course you would”, Lea interrupted, sarcastic, but Isa paid him no mind.

“-as I don’t want to leave either. I just figured I’d make the recovery easier for all of you. You should stop being so selfish-“

“Selfish?!”, Lea couldn’t help but interrupt again.

“Yes, selfish”, Isa sighed, deciding to acknowledge him. “You may want me around for a while, to ‘fix things’, but you have to be aware that my presence would only make your two friends even more uncomfortable”

Lea was starting to look furious. The situation felt eerily similar to Saïx’s and Axel’s many arguments.

“Oh, so you’re doing this for them, then? Because you’ve always cared so much about their wellbeing, right?”

Isa had the grace to look ashamed at that. “You’re right, I didn’t care about them at all. And I feel incredibly guilty, that’s why I should not cause them any more harm”

Lea took a deep breath, trying to calm down. “I still think you’re wrong”, he added after a brief pause. “Leaving like this wouldn’t make anything right, you just need to apologise”

“I don’t want to”

“What the hell, Isa?”

“Let me finish”, Isa interrupted him immediately, sounding annoyed. “I don’t want to apologise because I know it’ll just be empty words, as I have no way to undo how I acted towards them. My apology isn’t worth anything”

“Well, you’re wrong. It doesn’t matter how much your apology is or isn’t worth, they still deserve to hear one! That’s how apologies work, Isa! And even putting that aside, I’ve already spoken to them, everything can work out, somehow!”

Isa made a strange face at that. “This is the problem, Lea, it shouldn’t work out. I don’t deserve to be forgiven. I went behind Xehanort’s back to save your friends and succeeded, but I’m not useful for anything else now. That’s why I should just leave, instead of causing more problems”

“Isa, you…you don’t have to be useful to stay here, what are you talking about? We shouldn’t keep thinking like we used to do in the Organization”

That statement made Isa pause again. He had been recompleted less than an hour earlier and, while he had already weighted some options as he wandered through the halls, trying to decide what to do with his life, it hadn’t occurred to him that he had been thinking as if he were still Saïx.

The fact that he could finally change was starting to sink in. And he desperately wanted to change. For the better part of the past ten years, he had been constantly itching to have his heart and free will back, without worrying about how difficult it was going to be to use them again. Looking at Lea, in front of him and finally close enough to reach again, he knew he wanted to make the effort. But his guilt was still overwhelming. 

At loss for what to say, a movement farther down the corridor caught Isa’s attention. The kids were eavesdropping, leaning just out of the door far more obnoxiously than he’d imagined they would.

As soon as his eyes locked with Roxas’, the surprise of being discovered seemed to be enough to make him lose his precarious balance. He fell forward, dragging down Xion as well and knocking the back of their heads together.

Lea turned around and immediately snorted. “Serves you right for not minding your own business”

“Oh shut it”, complained Roxas, getting up on his feet, “it’s not like you two were whispering or anything. They probably heard you all the way down to the laboratory”

Already composed and standing beside him, Xion couldn’t hide a smile as she nodded.

“What? Really?”, Lea asked, embarrassed.

“Yeah, you definitely- hey! Saïx is running away!”, Roxas suddenly yelled, pointing at the man in question.

Isa immediately stopped in his tracks and turned around, scowling. “I’m not running”

“Walking away at moderate speed, then. Whatever”

Lea moved towards Isa and held his wrist. “I can’t believe you of all people are acting so childish. Instead of, you know, the two actual children here?”

“We’re fifteen”, came the annoyed reply, as Roxas walked closer to the two men.

As she got closer as well, Xion seemed in deep thought. “We’re not even two, technically. And our new bodies are even younger”

Roxas covered his ears. “Don’t say that”

“See? That’s an age appropriate reaction”, Lea said, almost laughing. But he was still holding Isa’s wrist, and that reminded him of the situation he was desperately trying to de-escalate. He gently pulled Isa forward, moving his hand to his friend’s back to keep him from trying to leave again. “Back to the serious stuff, I think it’s your turn to say something, since everyone’s already here”

Isa looked at Lea as if he’d just been pushed out of a window, but he still faced the two teenagers as he attempted to put his thoughts in order. Despite having categorically tried to avoid that, he knew what he had to say; he was just kind of struggling on how to say it. He didn’t want to sound desperate, but he knew it had to sound heartfelt for the apology to matter anything. And, to be fair, he was feeling kind of desperate, the guilt quickly destroying his cold façade.

Lea was about to lightly elbow his side, to finally get him to talk, but Isa started on his own just a second before he could go through with it.

“I’m sorry. For how I treated you, for how I spoke to you…for what I thought of you. Your lives were already difficult but I still succeeded in making them worse”, Isa paused to take a deep breath. “I could only think of my own problems without caring about anyone else’s, especially yours. I should-“

“Isa”

The shock of hearing Xion’s calm voice calling his old name was great enough to shut him up and make him freeze. No matter how polite she might have been in general, he really hadn’t expected her to try to be civil about the whole situation. With how he’d treated her in particular, she surely didn’t have to.

He was about to tell her just that, but Xion immediately shook her head.

“When you had Vexen recreate me…that wasn’t exactly me, obviously, because my heart was still inside Sora, but I can remember what happened then. Just the fact that I could copy your weapon and your fighting style should be proof enough that you were starting to care about me. And yes, being a copy was the purpose I was created for, but I was able to use Roxas’ keyblade only after we became friends. That has to mean something, right?”, she added, in a more light-hearted voice, glancing at Roxas just for a moment.

“Of course, this change of heart doesn’t erase every bad thing you’ve said to me in the past. I don’t think I can completely forgive you…not yet, at least”, Xion continued. “But you’ve shown to be willing to do better, and I’m willing to work with that”

Now, Isa looked even more shocked than before, something that he didn’t even think possible. Not finding the right words to reply to Xion, he resorted to speaking to Roxas as a way to stall. “You can’t possibly be alright with this, you hate me as much as she should”

“I sure do. But almost everyone has been rude to me by now, so it’s not like you’re special or anything. I’m just trying to tolerate you until you step out of line. If Xion says it’s alright for her, then it has to be”

Still standing next to Isa, Lea finally smiled. “See? I told you things could work out! They’re probably going to be cold towards you for a while-“

Roxas faked a cough.

“For a long while”, Lea corrected himself. “And maybe pull some annoying pranks on you, but at least they won’t try to maul you on sight!”

At that, Roxas smirked, probably imagining how it would feel to actually maul Saïx, and Xion had to nudge him to snap him out of it.

“Of course we’re going to ‘pull some pranks’, by the way”, he added.

By then, Xion was smirking just as much. “And Axel, you’re not safe either”

“What? Why?”

She laughed. “You know what you did!”

“I don’t!”

To Isa’s eyes, Lea looked comically terrified. He felt like he could have smiled at the sight, but he still fought to show no emotion. It was going to take more time for Isa to feel worthy of happiness again.

Luckily, Lea was planning to be by his side until then and, of course, even afterwards.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of the next chapters are already written, by the way, I probably won't disappear without finishig this. Probably. 
> 
> But anyways! I'll try to update this once a week unless something major happenes irl!


	3. chapter II - the gang harasses the restoration committee

That night, Isa couldn’t sleep. He had expected it, of course: it had always been difficult for him to fall asleep, and being as stressed as he was would only make things worse.

At first, when it was still early in the evening, he had considered going for another walk. He rapidly changed his mind when he realised that he could run into someone while outside. More talking didn’t seem really appealing to Isa at that time; his head still hurt and he felt in a bad mood for no apparent reason. And he couldn’t stop thinking about the conversation he had had that afternoon. He couldn’t stop thinking about how he hadn’t said nearly enough.

Both Roxas and Xion had left almost immediately and he didn’t get the chance to try and apologise better. He wasn’t blaming them, of course, they didn’t have to listen to him at all. But still, it felt like yet another failure on his part.

Lea had tried to say something to make him feel better, obviously, and Isa had simply reacted by fleeing the scene just like the two teenagers had. Obviously.

Isa did feel kind of childish, like Lea had accused him of being, but sometimes leaving seemed the only solution to anything, whereas talking would have simply created other problems, instead of solving the ones at hand.

After that, Isa had kept wandering the halls, but he had decided to sneak into the castle’s kitchens right before what he remembered as the designated dinner time, so that he could grab something to eat without anyone else around. Then, he retreated to his old room, locked the door, and laid on his bed with a sigh.

At some point after midnight, he did manage to fall asleep and, mercifully, he didn’t have any nightmares.

That still didn’t mean that he was going to wake up peacefully. The next morning, Isa opened his eyes to the sound of someone knocking on his door, rightfully startled at the sound. Remembering that he had locked the door, he closed his eyes again, hoping to go back to sleep.

The knocking stopped as abruptly as it started and, for a moment, the room was quiet again. Then, Isa heard the door unlock on its own and someone walking inside.

“Morning, Isa!”

He opened his eyes again. “Did you pick the lock?”

Lea smirked. “I just used my keyblade”

“Rude”

“You’re rude. Running away like that yesterday and pretending to be asleep just now. You think you’re too good to be around your old friend?”

Isa sighed and sat up. “I don’t feel like talking yet”

“Ok, that’s fine too. I just wished you had said so immediately, instead of avoiding me”, Lea replied, making no move to either leave or get closer.

“Do you want me to leave?”, he asked after a while, seeing that Isa was just staring at the wall without saying anything else.

“There’s no point in letting you stay if I don’t want to talk right now”

Isa winced at his own words, realising too late just how harsh they sounded. He didn’t mean that he didn’t want Lea around, only that he didn’t want to waste his time.

But Lea didn’t seem to care about harshness. “Oh, that’s cold! Are you implying that I can’t ever be quiet? Huh? I won’t be annoying, you know”

Touching the bridge of his nose, Isa sighed again, louder that time. “You could never annoy me”

He immediately regretted those words as well, though for the opposite reason.

Lea laughed and walked closer, boldly deciding to sit down next to Isa. “Do you want to stay completely silent or do you just want to avoid heavy topics? Because there are a lot of useless things that I could talk about instead, to keep the conversation going, if you want”

Isa thought about it for a while. What did he want?

“You can talk a bit”

“Wow, no jab on how everything I say is useless? This must be serious”

Scowling, Isa turned to look at him.

“I know, sorry. This is serious”, Lea apologised, scratching the back of his head. “I was just trying to lighten up your mood”

“You’d need a lighthouse”

Lea pretended to laugh. “You’re so funny Isa”

“Believe me, I know”. That time, Isa couldn’t help but smile and, even if he didn’t dare comment on it, Lea was overjoyed at the sight.

“So”, Lea started after a couple of minutes spent in silence, “what are your plans for today? You want to check out how they rebuilt the city?”

Isa went back to focusing on the wall. “Do you think I can? How many people in Radiant Garden know what I did? Would someone recognise me?”

When Isa turned to look at Lea again, he found him frowning. “Isa…I think you’re worrying too much. Only us ex-members and the guardians of light know about the Organization, no one else knows what happened”

“That’s not very comforting, we’re just sweeping every mistake under the rug. It’s too easy”

“I guess so, but what would telling other people accomplish? And wasting a decade as Nobodies was punishment enough for most of us”

“You’re not completely wrong”, Isa muttered, though still not very convinced.

Lea elbowed him lightly. “Are we going out, then?”

“Fine. But not for the whole day”

“I’ll take you back after lunch, how does that sound?”

Isa got up. “Sounds like a plan”

Isa wasn’t exactly shocked at the sight, but he was surely unsettled by it: Radiant Garden looked ‘normal’ again. The area around the castle had been rebuilt in its totality and, according to Lea, only a handful of buildings were still uninhabitable. 

It’s not that he wasn’t happy about it, because he obviously was. Seeing his own city looking as curated and lively as it did was doing wonders to his mood, but…it didn’t feel right. There was no proof that anything bad had ever happened in town. 

It was a good thing, Isa admitted to himself, and maybe it would make it easier to move on for other people. But for him? It just made him feel like he had woken up from a nightmare, still traumatized despite it not being real.

“You’re being really quiet…is something bothering you?”, Lea asked, slowly placing a hand on Isa’s shoulder.

Isa sighed. “Kind of. But it’s stupid”

Lea pouted. “Don’t say that, I bet it’s not. What is it?”

“The whole town. It looks exactly as it did ten years ago”, Isa explained, still feeling self-conscious about it. “It almost looks artificial; they rebuilt it as it was, thinking that it would have been static”

“You think it looks fake because it’s too accurate?”

“Yes”

“Well…you’re not wrong, I guess”, Lea replied, scratching the back of his head again. He had really picked up a bad habit. “I think the restoration committee found some blueprints in Ansem’s computer and used them to rebuild everything, so that’s probably why it looks perfect”

Confused, Isa turned to look at Lea. “Restoration committee?”

He nodded. “Just some concerned citizens, you could say. They banded together to try and help the city as soon as Sora managed to get them back here”, Lea paused and his face brightened. “I should probably introduce you, we’ve been bonding over taking care of stray teenagers and they seem nice”

“That’s not a great idea, are you really going to pretend that I didn’t terrorize the same two teenagers you were taking care of?”

Lea rolled his eyes. “Don’t tell them that, obviously”

“I don’t want to lie”

“Then just don’t reply to any compromising question”

Isa looked at him, without even having to voice his opinion.

“Ok, I know what you’re about to say, but think about it”, Lea tried to reason. “First of all, you’re not treating them badly anymore, and most importantly, they both said that they might forgive you! Eventually”

“Alright, fine. Let’s go”, Isa conceded after a moment.

“Really? Great!”, Lea replied, sincerely surprised, before he started walking towards the other end of the square.

The walk was really short apparently; that prevented Isa from having enough time to rethink his choices, and when Lea stopped in front of a two-stories house, surrounded by a lawn full of flowers in bloom, he still felt brave enough to go through with it.

The door had been left ajar and, even if Isa felt bad about it, they both entered without even knocking. 

The inside was just as colorful and pretty as the outside, if a little messy. It wasn’t probably the house’s owner’s fault, though: there were a lot of other guests already in there, and each person was doing their fair share of spreading chaos.

A girl was crouching right in the middle of the room, trying to wash a dog covered in mud. By one of the many windows, a man was trying to fix something mechanical that Isa could not recognise, and that was leaking a disturbing amount of motor oil. Another man, covered in mud as much as the dog, was pounding on a small door, demanding that whoever was behind it came out; each time his fist collided with the door, the mud on him went flying everywhere.

“Hey guys!”, Lea yelled as soon as they entered.

The girl stopped trying to hold the dog still and looked at the two newcomers. “Oh! You finally brought a friend that looks your age! Aerith will probably stop mocking you now!”

“So that’s why you wanted me to come here”, Isa commented, not really annoyed at the thought.

“What? No!”

The girl stood up and walked closer to them; as soon as she was in range, she threw a soapy sponge at Lea. “Bad friend!”

The man by the window let out the fakest, most pretentious cough ever. “Squall, are you going to stop knocking anytime soon? You know how long that dumbass takes to do his hair, just give it a rest. Don’t make me repair the bathroom door too”

The other man, Squall apparently, stopped himself just before he could knock yet another time and walked away with a scowl. He sat on the couch, staining it in mud, probably in retaliation for being scolded.

“Are you happy now?”

“Yeah”, the man by the window replied. “I don’t have to clean up after you”

The girl scoffed, “Why are they always like this? I hope Aerith won’t get mad at me too”

“I’m Yuffie, by the way!”, she added, turning towards Isa and holding her hand out.

“I’m Isa”, he replied, shaking her hand.

For a second, Yuffie seemed really surprised to hear his name, but before Isa could register that and become paranoid, she went right back to smiling. “Oh so you’re Isa! Nice to finally meet you!”

Lea grimaced. “Yuffie, don’t say anything weird”

“Who shouldn’t say anything weird?”, asked a new voice, as someone entered through the front door.

Yuffie’s face immediately brightened. “Aerith you’re back! Look at the mess Squall made!”

Aerith smiled. “I’d really rather not. Let’s just hope that Squall grows up a little and fixes whatever he did before I notice”

Lea sighed. He looked pretty relieved that Yuffie decided to pick on Squall instead of him.

From behind Aerith’s back, though, someone else walked inside: another woman and…Xion and Roxas, each holding two grocery bags.

“Oh you’re here already”, Roxas said, not surprised at all, and Xion immediately tried to shush him.

“What? What did I say?”

Isa looked at Lea. “So you did plan this”

His voice sounded rather cold, but he wasn’t mad, neither at Lea nor at the situation in general. He was, however, worried.

With how things looked, it was clear that they had all been expecting both of them, while Isa had been left in the dark regarding that day’s plan. He wasn’t panicking yet, but the lack of control he had on the situation was frightening. To put it mildly: Isa did not like surprises.

Lea looked ashamed. “Kind of, sorry. But it was in good faith! I only told them I planned on inviting you because whoever was on cooking duty needed to know exactly how many people would be here for lunch!”

“Who is on cooking duty anyway?”, Roxas interrupted, completely oblivious to what was going on with the two.

“I hope it’s not Cloud”, Xion muttered, looking to the side.

“Don’t worry, it’s my turn today”, replied the other woman that had come in with them.

Yuffie jumped. “Tifa! Can you make my favourite?”

“Nope! Also you’re grounded! Look at the mess you made with Angelo over there, it looks like the house was flooded!”

Xion laughed. “She’s right, you know”, she tried to say, but it was almost completely drowned out by Yuffie’s pleadings.

Lea turned towards Isa. “Are you mad?”

“No”

“We can still leave and have lunch somewhere else”, he added, lowering his voice.

“It’s fine”

“No, I mean it! I won’t be disappointed or-“

“What are you two whispering about?”, came yet another interruption, that time from Aerith, who was looking at them with a curious expression.

At the same time, the bathroom door finally opened and a man, his hair freshly gelled up, walked out without a care in the world. “My hair is done”, he announced. 

“About time, dumbass”, Squall remarked, still annoyed and still spreading mud on the couch, despite Aerith’s warning.

Lea sighed again. “There’s really too many people in here, huh?”

Isa nodded.

“Let’s just leave, then”, Lea added, nudging him towards the front door, still open. “We can come back later if things calm down. Or not, I don’t mind!”

They wandered around Radiant Garden for a little less than an hour, before stopping on a small bridge over a thin stream of limpid water. They had been making decent conversation, with Lea talking about literally anything that he could think about, while trying to avoid any heavy subject, and Isa doing his best to not just stay silent.

It had actually become easier for him as the minutes passed. It had been a long time since he had talked like that with anyone, and he was slowly recalling how it was not having to fear saying the wrong thing, because there were no wrong things to say. Not to Lea.

It felt like it didn’t matter what they were talking about, all words were meaningless at that moment, but even a simple conversation like theirs was deeply meaningful to Isa. It felt nice.

At some point though, when neither of them was even sure how much time had passed, Lea’s gummiphone started ringing. He accepted the call and Xion appeared on the small screen.

“Where are you guys?”, she asked, disappointed that Lea’s hair was occupying most of her own screen, and she could not see his surroundings.

“We’re just a couple of blocks away”, he replied, vague. “Did the others stop arguing?”

She smiled. “What do you think? Of course they didn’t”, she added, right as Lea said the exact same words. They both laughed at that, and even Isa joined in.

“But anyways”, Xion tried to say again, after the laughter stopped. “Are you still coming for lunch? Cloud mentioned that he wouldn’t be here tonight to cook, so Tifa got mad and made him swap their turns. He’s cooking right now”, she paused, disgusted. “It smells really bad, maybe you shouldn’t come”

Lea grimaced too. “Oh ew. I have no idea why they keep making him cook if he’s so bad at it”

Xion sighed. “Aerith says he’s messing up on purpose because he hopes they’ll stop asking him”

Isa surprisingly snorted and laughed again. “Lea, that sounds like something you would do. Now I get why you like these people”

“How dare you!”

“He’s right!”, Xion added, laughing as well.

“You too?! I thought we were friends!”, Lea gasped in mock outrage.

As the laughter calmed down again, Isa and Lea decided to have lunch somewhere else, to avoid being poisoned by Cloud, and said bye to Xion.

They wandered around some more, looking for a place to eat at, because Lea insisted that they didn’t need to go back to the castle, and they eventually stopped in front of a small restaurant, sitting right at the corner of a tall residential building.

The place looked nice and the menu, written on a sign by the front door, seemed pretty inviting, so they stepped inside, where a waiter greeted them and led them to a round table next to one of many windows.

They ordered and ate mostly in silence. Lea was still trying to make some kind of conversation, but Isa’s mood had shifted on its own. He still felt at ease, but also suddenly tired; he wanted to keep talking and, at the same time, he also wanted some quiet.

“Is everything alright?”, Lea asked at some point, seeing that Isa had lowered his gaze and was holding his forehead in both hands.

“My head hurts”, he quietly replied.

“Do you want to leave?”

Isa looked at Lea’s plate. “You’re not finished yet, you can’t waste your food like that”

“I’ll just ask if I can get a box for it, so I can finish it later”, and without even waiting for Isa’s reply, Lea had already called the waiter again.

They backtracked towards the castle in silence, while Isa already missed the conversation. But Lea hadn’t given up on hanging out yet. 

“Let’s just sit down in the break room. There’s something I need to check out and you can lie down on a couch in the meantime. I’ll be quiet”, he suggested, waiting for a moment before leading the way. He looked kind of discouraged, with his hands in his back pockets.

“That’s a new one”, Isa replied.

“Oh right, you’ve never seen it. More reason to go there, then!”, Lea added, glad to have something else to think about. “Don’t expect too much, though, it’s just a repurposed storage room. It was supposed to be used by any scientist on break, but we all hang out there anyway”

Lea was right about the break room, it was nothing special. It was kind of messy, actually. 

Isa had the suspicion that the scientists didn’t hang out in there because a certain trio kicked them out: there were comic books all over the floor; three skateboards were pushed up against a wall, one of which was missing two wheels; a bunch of magazines covered the single desk like a table cloth. Even the couch where Isa was supposed to rest was littered with a multitude of objects, like someone’s gummiphone, a laptop, some sheets of wrapping paper, and a brand new package of watercolors. 

“Yeah, I should tidy up a little…wait here”, Lea muttered, before walking inside, struggling to not step on a comic book.

It didn’t take long, since he mostly just pushed things to the side, instead of properly putting them away, but he succeeded in freeing up the couch. Then, proud of himself, Lea went to sit at the desk and turned the laptop on.

“You can come in now”, he called out to Isa, who was still standing by the doorway.

Isa briefly looked around, as if he hadn’t even noticed the break room was tidier, and did as Lea suggested, laying down on the couch. He closed his eyes and tried to stay still for a while. 

“What are you doing?”, Isa asked after some time had passed. His head still hurt but he was getting bored of all that silence.

“Looking for an apartment”, Lea replied.

“An apartment?”

“Yeah. The kids like it here but Roxas misses his friends in Twilight Town and Xion wants to meet them too”, he explained. “And…well, I think Radiant Garden isn’t right for me anymore, so we’ll probably leave together”

Isa paused to think about it. After all that sightseeing they had done that morning, he thought that Radiant Garden wasn’t right for him either. He had missed his home, but staying there would just remind him of all those experiments and the missions for the Organization. And worst of all, it would remind him of all the time he had lost.

“I feel the same way”, Isa spoke up again. “It just doesn’t seem like home anymore”

“Exactly”

Lea resumed typing on the laptop’s keyboard and, however much Isa wanted to keep talking, the sound inevitably lulled him to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you were wondering, the skateboard with the missing wheels is Lea's. I think it would be funny if he tried to take up skateboarding with Roxas and Xion, but ended up sucking at it ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


	4. chapter III - the gang breaks into an apartment

“Hey, Isa wake up”

Isa struggled to open his eyes and tried to focus them, but he could only pick up the red of Lea’s hair, too close to him. “What? What time is it?”

“You look ridiculous”, was all Lea could reply, as he held back a laugh.

“Thank you”

Hearing Isa’s monotone words, Lea had to laugh for real. “Did you sleep well, at least?”

“My arm is numb”

“That’s what you get for laying on your side like that. Come on, sit up”

While Lea kept occasionally snickering at the sight, Isa slowly sat up, his eyes still half closed. He was having a lot of trouble adjusting to the light in the room.

“What time is it, then?”, Isa asked again, squinting.

“Just in time for dinner”, Lea replied. “Want to go upstairs?”

Isa frowned. “How many people will be there?”

Lea understood him immediately. “Yeah, maybe another crowd wouldn’t be the best with your headache. How about I’ll go get something to eat for both of us, while you wait here? It’s not a big deal”, he added, noticing that Isa was about to argue. “I’d prefer eating here too. I’m still looking at apartment pictures and I don’t want to waste any time”

“Ok then”, Isa accepted. “Is finding an apartment in Twilight Town so hard?”

“Well not exactly”, Lea explained as he got up. “I’m just trying to find as many of them as possible so I can choose the best one. Then I’d have to wait for the owner to get back to me to discuss about it, but the owner is probably looking for other offers as well, so it might take some time. Or maybe I’ll be lucky”

“You sound very mature”

“Weird, right?”, Lea laughed. “But someone had to be, and it looks like it was my turn. Alright, I’ll be back in ten”

In the end, Lea didn’t keep looking for an apartment while they had dinner, because Isa was feeling up for a chat again, and they were both more than happy to talk.

A little before midnight, Isa decided to go back to his room, while Lea tried to make up for the lost time. He had taken it very seriously, because when Isa walked into the break room the next morning, he was still sitting in the same spot where he had left him, staring at his laptop. Only the fact that Lea had changed his clothes revealed that he did go to sleep at some point.

“So that’s why you didn’t barge in, this morning”, Isa muttered to himself. If he had known that Lea was busy with something else, he would have slept longer.

Lea apparently didn’t hear Isa’s complaint. “We found a place”, he said as a greeting.

Isa paused. ‘Already?’, he wanted to say, because the news seemed to come out of nowhere. Just hours before, Lea himself had been adamant that finding the right apartment was going to take a lot more time, and Isa had taken it for granted.

What would he do after Lea left with the kids? He hadn’t thought about yet, since he assumed he had more time to figure it out. He’d definitely leave as well, but to where?

“Isa? Are you ok?”

He snapped out of it. “Yes. Sorry, I’m still half asleep apparently”, Isa quickly lied. “It’s good that you found something so soon”

Lea beamed. “Yeah! Come look at the pictures, you’ll love it!”

Isa held back a sigh and walked closer. After a short internal debate, he decided to just move the other chair near the desk, and sit next to Lea. He thought he was sitting too close, but at least he could see the photos properly.

“Here’s the outside…”, Lea kept talking, pointing at the screen of his laptop and scrolling through some pictures of an apartment building. “Here’s the living room and the kitchen area. These are the bedrooms…it’s not furnished though, the previous owners took everything with them. Well, not the kitchen, actually, but only because most things in there are nailed to the wall and they’d have to pay more to remove them”

The apartment was lovely. The walls were a nice shade of lilac, and the floors were made of a deep-colored wood, so clean it shined, reflecting the light coming through a couple of spacious windows. The kitchen looked really classy and Isa thought that, if he were the previous owner, he’d replace the furniture himself, just so he could bring them to his new house.

“You know, it’s actually on two floors”, Lea added, as he kept showing off the pictures. “Apparently the owners had many children and bought two apartments to have more space, but recently their kids all got married, and now they feel too lonely in that big house. That’s why they want to sell it”

“I guess that makes sense”, Isa mused. He could definitely understand loneliness.

“Yeah. And it’s really good for us too, because not many apartments close to the high school have five bedrooms…”

“Five?”

“Yup. Xion said that we should get one more room in case Naminé wants to live with us once she comes back”, Lea explained absent-mindedly. “And Ansem is paying, so it’s not like we care about the apartment being too expensive”

Again, Isa didn’t reply immediately. He was too focused on figuring out who else was going to live with them, since Lea and the three kids only added up to four.

“Hey”, Lea said again, poking Isa’s shoulder. “You’re zoning out again, maybe you should go back to sleep for a while. It’s still early anyway”

Isa frowned. “Maybe”

Lea stared at him. “Then go, what are you waiting for? We’re going furniture shopping this afternoon, you can’t be this spaced out while we decide how to decorate the house!”

“This afternoon? Why the rush?”

“Aren’t you glad? The owners already emptied the house and said that we could move in immediately if we wanted. I even already booked a moving crew for the afternoon, they’ll meet us outside the store in Twilight Town when we’re done shopping”

Isa kept staring at him, struggling to process all the information. “So you’re leaving today”

“We’re all leaving today”, Lea replied, with a weird expression. “All four of us”, he added, pointing first at Isa, then at himself, then at the door.

“Oh”, Isa mouthed. Five rooms because Lea had immediately counted him in, without needing to ask. “Fine, I’ll go back to sleep. Can you come wake me up for lunch?”

“Of course. I can’t let you be late, can I?”, Lea grinned. “But I should probably ask Ienzo to give you a gummiphone just like ours, so you can use it as an alarm clock too”

“I don’t think he’d be happy to do something for me”

“Don’t be like that. I’ve been even worse to him and he still made a gummiphone for me, I’m sure he won’t mind if you ask him too. He even enjoys making these things”, Lea tried to reassure him.

“Fine”, Isa repeated, after a sigh. “But I won’t ask today”

“Sure, take your time”

Isa stood up, ready to leave the break room, and immediately yawned. “See you later”

The store was incredibly big, though larger rather than higher, occupying more space than it would have otherwise. Roxas didn’t spare it a second glance and crossed the road, walking towards the main entrance; Xion only followed him after taking a good look around, still familiarising herself with the town.

Isa too was a bit lost in his thoughts, and Lea had to constantly nudge him to get him to move again. The two of them were walking a good five metres behind the kids, but they didn’t feel the need to catch up.

Inside, there were only a few people shopping. It wasn’t the weekend and it was still early in the afternoon, when almost everyone had already gone back to work after their lunch break; it was to be expected.

“Ok, let’s find something together for the living room, then we’ll split up to pick stuff for the bedrooms”, Lea finally said, as he managed to walk by Xion and Roxas again.

“Should we get one big couch or two smaller couches?”, Xion wondered, excited. “Or maybe some armchairs!”

“Maybe one armchair”, Lea conceded. “And two big couches are probably better. I have the feeling that we’ll always have some guests”

Roxas grinned. “Oh definitely. Hayner, Pence, and Olette already said they’re coming over as soon as we’re finished unpacking”

“See?”, Lea muttered.

Isa figured Lea didn’t actually mind having them around, but more teenagers always meant more chaos. His only concern, probably, was just avoiding a noise complaint, especially so soon after moving in.

“Hey, look at that glass table over there!”, Xion suddenly pointed.

“Not a chance, that’s gonna break in no time”, Lea sighed. “We need something almost indestructible”

Xion pointed again. “What about that?”, and she jogged towards the new table that caught her eye, everyone else just a few steps behind.

Isa followed the trio for what felt like an eternity, looking for tables, couches, curtains, and a myriad of other things that he couldn’t keep up with, even if Lea insisted in always asking for his opinion.

They finally split up after agreeing on a dark blue carpet and, while the kids immediately ran in two opposite directions, Isa just kept following Lea.

“We should split up too, you know?”, Lea chuckled, slightly turning his head to look at Isa. “Are you still spacing out?”

He shook his head. “I’m fine. I just don’t know what I should be looking for”

“Well, a bed, for starters. A nightstand, a desk, some shelves, a wardrobe”, Lea started listing off. “Literally anything you want”

“Got it”, and Isa changed direction as well.

He looked around on his own, occasionally stealing glances at strangers, to get some hints on what else he should do. Soon, he understood he was supposed to stop at one of the checkpoints all around the store, and take an order form, so he could write down the ID code of the furniture he liked, choosing from the display area he was currently in. Then, when he had had enough, he just needed to go to the warehouse downstairs, where the actual buyable furniture was kept, and pick up what he had chosen.

It was a simple enough process, and Isa liked writing things down. After a while of that, he realised he was even having fun; it did remind him too much of a typical recon mission, but it was still familiar and comforting, and it mixed perfectly with the newfound awareness that he was doing something for himself. Not for Xehanort.

When he reunited with the others at the checkout it was clear that Isa, despite the excitement, had been the only one to completely stick to Lea’s list. He had only added a single chair, out of necessity, or he would have had to stand to use the desk.

Lea critically looked at Isa’s cart, a lot emptier than his own and those of the two kids. “You got everything you needed?”

“Yes”

“And everything you wanted?”, Lea asked again.

Isa paused at that. “I’m good for now”

Lea smiled at him. “Ok. You can always change your mind”

“Hey it’s almost our turn”, Roxas said when the line moved up again, and they got closer to the cashier. “Lea get the card”

“Don’t drop it this time”, Xion mocked him.

“I won’t”, Lea replied, slightly annoyed. “It’s not even like it was my fault last time, though” 

One customer later, the cashier started scanning the items Lea had picked. 

“New house?”, the cashier commented, as the furniture to scan seemed endless.

“Yeah. Sorry about it”, Lea replied, genuinely guilty.

The cashier didn’t even fake a smile. “I’ve had to do worse”

Not knowing how to reply to that, Lea just kept quiet through the whole ordeal and, once he had paid for everything using the card Ansem had given to them, the four of them stuffed everything back inside their carts and rushed outside. The moving crew was already waiting for them.

“Sorry we’re late”, Lea managed to say, out of breath already.

One woman shrugged, while two of her co-workers started loading up their truck. “No worries, we were a bit late too. Let’s just hope everything else goes smoothly now”

“This isn’t going smoothly at all”, Roxas complained. “If the guy with our keys doesn’t arrive immediately we’ll be in trouble”

Xion peeked out of the window. “I don’t see anyone passing by yet. The moving crew is about to leave, what are we supposed to do?”

Lea looked over his shoulder, checking to see if they were alone on the stairs. “You know, we could always use our ‘other’ keys. We know it works”

“Isn’t that kind of illegal?”, Xion asked.

“Not if the apartment is already ours. I think. It’s not like I’ve ever broken into anywhere”, Lea replied after a way-too-long pause.

On his left, Isa coughed and Lea glared at him.

“The castle doesn’t count”, Lea added.

“I’m sure Dilan wouldn’t agree with you, especially after having to replace the same locks multiple times”

Lea pouted. “Well, this is clearly different”

“It doesn’t sound illegal to me”, Roxas chimed in. “Ansem already paid in full, right? Let’s just get on with it, who cares”

As he finished speaking, he was already summoning his keyblade in his hand. He pointed it at the door they’d been waiting in front of for an hour and the lock immediately clicked.

“See? Easy…”, the words died in his throat. Unlocked by the keyblade’s power, the door had swung open on its own, revealing a corridor that was not lilac, like the photos had shown, and that was definitely furnished. “Huh”

“Is this the wrong house?”, Xion whispered. “Have we really been standing in front of the wrong house for an hour?”

At those words, Roxas jolted and reached for the door handle, closing it as quietly as he could, then he bolted down the stairs, his eyes wide and his face as red as the sunset outside.

Xion ran after him, laughing, and Lea and Isa, worried that the sound could attract attention, rushed downstairs as well, jumping some steps here and there to go faster.

“I don’t get it! This was the second floor of building 58 A”, Lea said, almost at the building entrance.

“This was actually building 58 B”, Isa corrected him.

“Oh so it wasn’t the wrong house, it was actually the wrong building”, Xion added, still giddy. 

They all ran out and, while Isa approached the moving crew to alert them of the mistake, Lea kept running towards the correct building, then up another staircase. On the second floor, just like he had predicted, an older man was waiting for him with a bunch of keys in hand.

“We went…to the wrong address”, Lea explained, as embarrassed as he’d never been in his life.

The man simply smiled. “It’s fine. You actually gave me some more time to say goodbye, so I’m not mad. Here you go”, he added, motioning for Lea to take the keys. “Have a nice day”

The moving crew had already started climbing up the stairs, and Lea rushed to open the door. Inside, he just let himself fall to the floor, sighing.

“Come on, you’re not that old”, Isa mocked him, as he sat down as well. “Didn’t you help fight off a thousand Heartless some days ago?”

Lea laughed. “Yeah, I still haven’t recovered”

Xion and Roxas walked by, holding some boxes as well. “We’re unpacking immediately”, Xion announced.

“Can either of you order some pizza for dinner?”, Roxas added.

“Sure”

After a while, Lea finally got up again. “I’ll start unpacking too. Let’s show each other the end result after we’re done, ok?”

Isa stood up as well. “Alright”

Nervous, Isa knocked on the doorframe, as the door itself had been left ajar.

“Come in!”

“Lea are you- what is this monstrosity?”, he inquired as soon as he set foot inside his friend’s room.

The walls had been painted fire-red, so haphazardly that even the ceiling had some paint splatters, and the floor, made of a classy dark wood, had been mercilessly covered in a multitude of small, round carpets, each of a different shade of red, orange, and even yellow. Other than that, the bedsheets were red. The curtains were red. Everything that wasn't made of wood was red.

And Lea was standing right in the middle of it, almost blending in with the room’s palette, twirling a screwdriver in his hand as he turned to look at Isa.

“You don’t like my room?”, he asked, disappointed.

Isa honestly didn’t know how to answer. He kept looking around, hoping to find some sort of saving grace the room could have, so that he wouldn’t need to lie.

He glanced to his left. The wardrobe seemed safe enough, plain black and modern-looking.

“You picked a nice wardrobe”

“Yeah”, Lea looked smug again. He threw the screwdriver in the air, caught if after it had rotated a couple of times, then pointed it at the wardrobe, all in a very smooth motion. “I liked it a lot, but there was something missing…so! Look what I put up inside”

Bracing himself, Isa followed Lea as he got closer to the wardrobe. He opened one of its doors and revealed two rows of brightly-colored posters attached inside.

Isa covered his face with his hands. “I can’t do this again”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Lea”, Isa looked at him again, trying not to laugh. “This looks almost exactly like your childhood bedroom”

Pouting, Lea finally stopped twirling the screwdriver. “And? Maybe I missed it”

Noticing that Isa’s expression had become cold again, he scrambled to say something else. “Or…maybe I didn’t! Maybe I just had incredible taste as a kid and I knew I couldn’t possibly come up with a better room!”

Isa smiled and shook his head. “Whatever, it’s not like this affects me in any way”

“Exactly! But since you were so rude and criticised my room, now I get to do the same!”, Lea added, grinning. “I bet you didn’t even paint the walls and left everything white”

He started laughing, but stopped almost immediately, seeing that Isa didn’t join in. He looked embarrassed, actually.

“Wait, is your whole room seriously white?”, Lea asked, concerned.

“No”

“Oh god, it is”

“It isn’t”

Lea quickly sidestepped him and walked out of his room, trying to get to Isa’s before he could be held back.

Isa grabbed his wrist, but Lea had already turned the doorknob and peeked inside.

It was indeed white. The walls as well as everything else; even the wood that made up the scarce furniture was very light. And in addition to that, there was almost no clutter or extra objects: no carpets, nothing on the desk nor on the bedside table.

It looked so empty.

“Isa-“

“Don’t say it”

“It looks like our old rooms at the Organization’s castle”

Isa didn’t reply. He didn't even look at Lea, who, on the other hand, just couldn’t stop staring at his friend.

“Hey, you know what? It’s too early to have dinner anyway, there’s still some time to go out again and buy more paint and some decorations for your room. I can’t let you sleep in here, when it looks so depressing”

Lea looked weirdly resolute about it and Isa didn’t feel like arguing. He didn’t feel like sleeping in that white room either, even if he was the one who decorated it in the first place. He hadn’t even noticed the pattern until Lea pointed it out for him.

The sunset was unending, but as they walked down the stairs, Isa felt it was probably later than they thought. “Lea”, he called. “What time is it?”

He looked at his gummiphone and frowned. “It’s not that late”, he repeated, though that time he seemed more uncertain. 

“It’s fine, we can go tomorrow. Let’s get back inside”

“But-“

Isa shrugged. “I’ll sleep on the couch, I don’t care”

Lea suddenly grinned. “Let’s make it a sleepover then, I’ll sleep on the other couch”

“Fine”, Isa laughed. “I knew this maturity of yours wouldn’t last too long”

“Very funny”, Lea replied, then lightly elbowed him as he walked past him. “Keep that up and I'll change my mind”

“Lea”, Isa called again, smiling. “Thank you”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It felt weird to actually use a real store name in here so I tried to dance around it but like. Yeah. They're shopping at Ikea. Or, if you prefer, they're shopping at "Fantasy Ikea", were "all your dreams" come "true" c:


	5. chapter IV - the gang goes shopping

Isa was starting to realise that, even if their new couch was more comfortable than the one in the break room, it still wasn’t particularly fun to sleep on it. He wasn’t going to complain, of course, but he knew he had to redecorate his room as soon as possible, so he could finally sleep in his bed.

If not for himself, at least for Lea, who would probably offer to keep him company on the other couch again.

Sighing, Isa rolled on his side, pressing his back into the cushions behind him; close by, Lea shifted too.

“You’re awake too?”, Lea whispered.

“Yes”, Isa muttered. “My arm went numb again”

Lea laughed. “Maybe this wasn’t my best idea”

“Not your worst either”

“Yeah, yeah, my ideas suck. But you agreed to it”, Lea retorted, still smiling.

Isa yawned. “I was blindsided by nostalgia”

“Fair. It was easier as kids because we were a lot shorter”

Closing his eyes again, Isa silently agreed. He hated being always so negative, but he just couldn’t suppress the thought that ‘everything was easier when they were kids’. That was simply how it was supposed to be for everyone, he knew that, but it wasn’t easy to stop thinking about the past.

“Did you fall asleep?”, Lea asked again, his voice lower so he wouldn’t wake him if he were right.

“I’m just thinking”

“You’re doing a lot of that lately”

“That’s because I have a lot to think about”, Isa replied, vague

Lea did not get the hint. “Like what?”

“I meant in general”

“Ok, but what are you thinking about right now?”

“The past”, Isa finally admitted. “our childhood and how I didn’t appreciate it enough while we were living it”

“Nobody does. I don’t think it’s possible to live completely without regret”, Lea mused, his tone so steady it made it seem like he had been expecting that topic.

Isa tried to turn his head to look at Lea, but, with the way the couches were positioned, his neck hurt too much. “What about you? Are you even capable of rational thought now that you’re not acting like an adult anymore?”

“Very funny”

“I try”

“I’m thinking about the past too”, Lea added after a while. “Sometimes I really wish we could have a ‘do-over’, you know?”

“Agreed”

Lea let out a tired laugh, that was soon interrupted by a yawn. “Maybe we should try to sleep again”

Isa had to yawn too. “You have a point. Goodnight"

“Night”

“Hey hold on, the fridge is still empty”

“Well duh, did you think they’d go grocery shopping in the middle of the night?”

“Ok fair. Let’s reheat last night’s pizza”

“For breakfast? Gross, Roxas. Let’s go eat at the bistro!”

“Cool. I’ll text Hayner and the others, maybe they want to have breakfast together”

As Roxas and Xion ran out of the house excitedly, they slammed the door shut behind themselves. The sound immediately woke Isa, a light sleeper by nature; Lea stirred as well, but tried his best to go back to sleep. After only a couple of minutes, though, his gummiphone started ringing, and he blindly grabbed for a cushion to cover his ears with.

“Can’t you answer?”, Isa complained, subconsciously searching for a cushion as well.

“Not a call”, Lea sleepily muttered. “Alarm”

“Then turn it off”

Lea just groaned.

Isa got up, almost with a jump, glaring at where the noise was coming from. He picked up the gummiphone from the floor and angrily tapped at its screen. The ringing eventually stopped.

Lea removed the cushion from over his face and looked at him, squinting. “Thanks”

After a simple nod as a reply, Isa left the living room and walked towards the bathroom. When he came back, Lea was in the kitchen, tinkering with something on the counter.

“Are you going to reheat last night’s pizza?”, Isa asked, walking closer.

“Oh yeah, I can reheat it”, he replied, his mouth clearly already full.

Isa was disgusted. “Are you eating it cold?”

A pause. “No”

“I want to move out”

Lea seemed to choke on his pizza slice. “Don’t joke about that”

“Sorry. But you are being disgusting right now. You literally have fire magic, and yet you’re eating cold leftovers”

He pouted. “I’m still half asleep, don’t expect too much of me”

Isa kept looking at him with disappointment written all over his face, and Lea relented, putting the remaining leftovers in their microwave.

They waited for the pizza to heat up in silence; as they started eating it, they went back to talking normally, the earlier disgust already forgotten.

After doing the dishes, Lea went back to the couch to check his gummiphone. “Today is gonna be as busy as yesterday”

“I don’t think so”, Isa replied. “Not many things can win over moving and building enough furniture to fill five rooms”

“Don’t test our luck”

Lea kept looking at his gummiphone, until he suddenly raised his head to stare at the door that led to the hallway. “It’s really late, I can’t believe the kids are still asleep”

Isa looked at him with a weird expression. “Didn’t you hear them leave? They argued for a while and even slammed the door”

“They left without us?”, Lea complained. “They’re so rude, they were supposed to go grocery shopping with us”

Surprised by those words, Isa laughed. “Yes, because at their age you were just so eager to go grocery shopping with your parents. Of course they’d leave without us”

“That’s-“, Lea tried to say, before something seemed to stop him. “Does that mean you think of us as their parents now?”, he started again, a grin on his face.

Isa’s laughter died in his throat. Of course he thought so, why else would two adults live with a couple of troublemaking kids? He felt weirdly responsible for them already, despite all he had done just months earlier. And he was sure Lea thought of it too. But hearing him say it like that… if he thought of ‘both of them’ as parents of the same kids, that would imply...

“That was just an example”, Isa replied, hoping he wasn’t making a weird face. 

Lea laughed. “Yeah, I guess. We’re too young to be parents, aren’t we?”

“We aren’t”, Isa’s face darkened. “You realise we’re closer to our thirties than our twenties, right?”

“Emotionally too young, then? We’re definitely messed up from ten years without a heart”

“That makes more sense”

At that, Lea resumed talking about other things, completely unbothered, but Isa kept thinking about it. He didn’t actually want to, if he had to be honest. It was an incredibly embarrassing topic for him.

Everyone always said that the more a person thinks or talks about something, that thing starts to lose meaning, but it didn’t work like that for Isa: he had been thinking about his love for Lea since long before they became Nobodies, and it still felt like the most important concept he had ever thought about.

And the embarrassment didn’t weaken either; Isa was so full of undeserved shame he had no space for it anymore, yet it still tried to pile up.

Isa sighed and got up from the kitchen chair. “We should go grocery shopping soon, so we don’t forget about it until we need to cook lunch”

Lea stood as well. “Sure. And when we’re done with that we’ll think about your room”

Less than two hours later, they were back at the same weird store as the previous day, and Isa immediately rushed to grab another form.

“Ok, ready for round two?”, Lea asked, a big smile on his face.

“I think so”

Lea slung an arm over Isa’s shoulder, briefly pulling him close before letting him go again. “Yeah, of course you are. Let’s pick a color for your room now”

They walked towards the paint aisle, strictly following the arrows on the floor, so they wouldn’t get lost. There were already other people intently looking at the long rows of shelves, which displayed a multitude of buckets and their respective colored card, but it wasn’t impossible to get closer.

Isa was drawn towards the more natural colors, but Lea faked a cough. “No greys. No beiges either. Let’s pick something fun”

“Fine”, Isa complained, changing direction.

He looked at each card for longer than he should have, at loss for what color to choose. He just kept walking closer to the end of the row without ever finding anything that caught his eye, until one of the very last buckets, sitting right on the edge of the shelf so precariously it might have fallen at any time.

Isa looked at its label. Midnight blue. Maybe it was too predictable of him, but he couldn’t deny how much he liked that shade. And, honestly, if Lea had allowed himself to paint his own room with a color that strongly resembled his hair, then so could he. 

“Midnight blue? You like this one?”, Lea asked, as soon as he noticed what Isa was staring at.

“Does it pass the fun test?”, Isa shot back, smirking.

Lea laughed. “Only because it’s for you”

Isa kept smiling as he took the bucket off the shelf. “Good. Now what?”

“You’re asking me? We need, I don’t know, anything you like? Plants, frames, boxes, stuff to put on your shelf. Definitely some carpets and posters too”, Lea listed, scratching the back of his head as if it helped him think. “Oh, and new curtains”

The smile on Isa’s face faded a little: that was more stuff than what he wanted to think about at that moment. But, he reasoned, maybe it would end up as easy as it had just been with the paint. “Let’s go for the curtains and carpets first, they should be close by”

Lea nodded, looking up at the many signs hung around the store. “Yeah, curtains are over there”

After a bit of looking around in that aisle, Isa ended up getting a set of matching curtains and two round carpets, of a blue slightly darker than the paint he had picked, but dotted with little, cream-colored stars. Then, Lea pointed in yet another direction and they started their search again.

“I don’t have any picture to display”, Isa said at some point. “Why do you think I should buy frames?”

“You don’t have any picture to display yet”, Lea corrected. “We can take as many as you’d like. Or you can take pictures with anyone you want”, he added quickly, looking away from Isa’s face.

That pause was weird, Isa thought, but he didn’t know how to bring it up politely, so he dropped it for the moment. He shifted his attention back to the frames in front of him and chose three of them, of different dimensions, but with the same wooden pattern.

They spent the rest of their morning like that, at first only looking for things to buy, then playing around with any funny item they saw. Near the toy aisle, they had noticed a shelf of small night lights, shaped like cute ghosts, and they had started turning them on and off repeatedly, obsessed with the rainbow glow the lamps emitted.

“Are you going to get one?”, Lea asked.

Isa laughed again. “Do I look so desperate I would need a night light?”

“No, but they’re funny”

“Then you get one”

Lea seemed to genuinely think about it. “I will, actually. I’ll even prank Roxas with it, pretending I bought it for him because he’s a kid”

“What if he wants to keep it?”, Isa kept asking, barely holding his laughter in just so he could speak.

“I’ll buy another”, Lea replied, shrugging.

And, in the end, Roxas did want to keep the night light, if only because he had realised Lea’s actual plan and wanted to prank him right back.

Lea sighed, defeated. “Ok, let’s stop laughing at me now. I’m going to make lunch”

“I hope you know how to cook better than Cloud does”, Xion said.

Roxas snorted. “He has to, Cloud is the worst”

“Why don’t you two set the table instead of complaining, huh? Rude children”, Lea muttered, opening the fridge.

Lea started cooking and stopped responding to the kids’ jokes; Isa assumed he was just trying his best to focus and not burn the house down. He definitely couldn’t fault him for that, but it left a big, vacant spot in the conversation, one that Isa wasn’t sure he could take yet.

He helped set the table, then stood close to Lea, even if not close enough to get in his way, while Xion and Roxas had already sat down, waiting for their plates.  
“What’s you favourite food, Isa?”, Xion suddenly asked, looking at him; sitting next to her, Roxas was glaring.

“Fried fish”, he replied, after a slight hesitation. 

“I don’t think I’ve ever tried that”

Roxas puffed his cheeks, pretending to be disgusted. “Lucky you”

“You know, fish tastes weird to most children”, Lea spoke up, smirking, as he turned back to look at them for just a moment. “Maybe you’ll change your mind when you start growing up”

Xion laughed and, when Roxas complained, she elbowed him lightly. “You really are a picky eater though”

“I’m not”

They kept jokingly arguing until the food was ready, then argued some more while they ate. 

As Isa cleaned up and Lea kept him company, the kids went to sit on a couch and turned the television on. “Are we spoiling them?”, Lea wondered.

“Did you ever do house chores at fifteen?”, Isa asked back.

“Not really. But you did, and I always helped out when I was over at your house”

“True, but that was only because my parents weren’t around that much”, Isa replied, still looking at the flowing water. “For now it’ll be enough if they keep their rooms clean”

Roxas stood up from the couch. “Hayner and the others want to meet up again”

Lea snorted. “You were together until an hour ago”

“Olette needs to buy another jacket, so we’ll probably buy some clothes too”, Roxas kept talking, ignoring Lea’s comment. “Since we only have this one outfit, you know?”

Isa looked at Lea. “We should probably buy more clothes too”

“Fair point. Guess we’ll tag along” 

“How does this shirt look?”, Roxas asked as he glared at his reflection.

“Looks like you’re obsessed with checkered patterns”, Hayner replied; Xion, Pence, and Olette immediately agreed.

Lea glanced at the clock behind the counter, in perfect view despite the distance from the dressing rooms. “Let’s split up again, or we’ll spend the whole afternoon looking at black and white squares”

Again, everyone else was quick to agree.

“That’s a lot of button up shirts”, Lea said, surprised, after looking at what Isa was about to buy. It wasn’t time to meet up with the others yet, and he hadn’t expected to find someone else at the checkout area.

“A lot less than all the flannels you just bought”, he replied.

Lea pouted. “Yeah but at least I have some variety”

“Thirty flannels and two t-shirts aren’t variety”

“Sure they are, some flannels even have short sleeves”

Isa scoffed. “My apologies. That makes a great difference”

“Alright, then what else do you think I should get?”, Lea asked. “Actually, why don’t we make a competition out of this? You’ll choose for me and I’ll choose for you”

“And the one who chooses better will be the winner”, Isa finished.

“Exactly. Let’s meet back here when we both have five things!”

In the end, their stupid competition ended in a draw: Lea had liked each of the five things his friend had picked for him, and so did Isa.

“I’m not satisfied”

“Why not? You got nice clothes out of it”

Lea laughed. “I know, but I wanted to win”

“Tough luck”, Isa replied, smiling at him.

Before he could answer to his taunt, Lea’s attention was caught by something. “Look at that store”, he said, pointing to their left. “They’re selling paintings. Maybe you could find something for your room’s walls in there? Since this morning you didn’t find anything you liked”

“Let’s see”

They entered the store and looked around. There were mostly copies of famous masterpieces, which Isa wasn’t exactly interested in. Towards the back, though, there were some colourful scrolls on display and one of them in particular, painted with a crescent moon over a peaceful landscape, felt incredibly soothing to him. 

He got closer and picked it up; it was made of a soft fabric, instead of paper, like he had thought at first.

Lea peeked over his shoulder. “Cool”

Isa kept looking at the scroll before replying, and what he read on its tag made him sigh. “It’s part of a set, though, I can’t just buy half of it”

“You don’t like the other one?”

“It’s the one with the setting sun over there, it wouldn’t fit with the color scheme”

Lea grinned. “Who would have thought you’d care so much about your room’s color scheme, after your first attempt was to simply leave everything blank? Buy it anyway, I’ll hang the red one in my room”

Isa raised an eyebrow. “I thought your walls were already completely covered”

“I’ll make space”, Lea replied, taking the package from Isa. “And I’ll go ahead and buy it for you, before you change your mind”

After dinner, while Roxas and Xion were distracted again by the television, Lea sat close to Isa and looked at him with a worried face. “Would you sleep in my room?”

Isa’s brow furrowed, more in confusion than in annoyance. “Why? You don’t like the décor anymore and want to swap rooms?”

Lea chuckled. “Don’t be like that, you know what I meant”

Isa searched Lea’s face for any trace of mockery, not that he was expecting any; he wasn’t that kind of person. But Isa absolutely was the kind of person who would feel paranoid at those words.

“Why?”, he asked again, stubborn.

“I slept really well last night. Despite the couch, I mean”, Lea replied, after a shrug. “Having you in the same room saves me from nightmares”

Isa’s face softened. “You’ve been having nightmares?”

“Who doesn’t?”

“Lea…”

He grinned. “I know, I know. They’re not that bad anyway, but after I wake up from one I just can’t fall asleep again, so I’m pretty tired these days”

“Fine, I’ll sleep in your room”, Isa agreed. There was no way he wouldn’t help his best friend, especially after everything Lea had done for him. “But I’m sure you’re wrong, why would my presence stop you from having a nightmare? It has to be because you feel safer here in Twilight Town, where you have your own house”

Lea laughed. “No, it has to be because of you, Isa”

Isa looked away. “Fine”, he repeated, embarrassed, before running away to the hallway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Four things:
> 
> 1\. Those Ikea night lights exist for real, but don't actually buy them, their chargers break really easily and they're a pain to replace (but maybe I'm just unlucky)
> 
> 2\. Similar wall ornaments probably exist in real life too, but I based them off two The Sims 4 items (city living). Google them, they're really pretty!
> 
> 3\. I typed decor and Word immediately added the accent. Ok snob.
> 
> 4\. Sorry for disappearing, I've been really busy and could not get to my laptop :/ but hey, at least it's not 2012 and we're not on ff net anymore, so you won't have to read a weird excuse where I pretend I couldn't update the chapters because I'd been kidnapped!


	6. chapter V - the gang robs an ice cream kiosk

An hour later, all four of them split between the two couches, Isa still didn't feel worse than only mildly unnerved. He had though he'd be four times as anxious at the idea of sharing a bed with Lea again, but he was actually rather calm.

Because of course, even if Lea had danced around it, only asking him to 'sleep in the same room', Isa knew what would actually happen. Lea would say that Isa should take the bed while he slept on the floor, then Isa would disagree and suggest they do the opposite; then, at a standstill, one of the two would have to be brave and tell the other they should just share the bed.

That's what always used to happen during their childhood sleepovers, and the certainty of it, the certainty that Lea had changed but not enough to forego their routine, was extremely comforting to Isa. 

It felt so validating to know, for once, exactly what was going to happen. And it was the only thing he needed not to spiral down in his anxiety. That, and the knowledge that he had survived sleeping next to his crush already when they were teenagers. Repeating that feat as an adult would be a piece of cake.

At some point, he realised that maybe he shouldn't be so confident, or he'd risk jinxing it.

Lea got up from the couch. "Hey hold on, we've been here two whole days and we've got sea-salt ice cream only once. That's not normal"

Isa looked at him with a frown. He was actually pretty tired after all the running around they had been doing. "Wouldn't it be better to go tomorrow?"

But Xion and Roxas had already gotten up as well, one second away from jumping around like the excited kids they were. 

"We should go right now!", Xion suggested, and Roxas was quick to agree, without a hint of irony.

Lea grinned, clearly pleased at the thought of eating yet more ice cream. "Let's go!"

Isa felt a bit bad about it, but he was kind of hoping that the kiosk would be already closed. It wasn't, of course. The owner gladly assured Lea and the kids that it was open every night, until eleven pm.

All four of them bought two ice creams each and settled on the stairs nearby. Roxas had phoned Hayner, Pence, and Olette for the millionth time, but the trio had had to decline that evening, and the others didn't want to go to the clock tower without them.

"We should have bought one at a time", Isa commented at some point. "The second one will just melt while we eat the other"

Lea laughed. "You can just give it to one of us if you're not hungry"

"That's not what I said"

The four of them settled in a comfortable silence after that; Isa wasn't the only tired one, apparently.

Xion started yawning loudly, and so did Roxas. When Isa yawned too, Lea got up and finally declared it was time to go home and sleep. But not before buying a third round of ice creams, to eat while they walked back.

As soon as Isa was about to knock on Lea's door, already changed in his new pajamas, his nerves got the better of him. What if Lea had changed his mind? He should probably go back to his own room and pretend that nothing had happened.

But he didn't want to do that.

The door in front of him abruptly opened and Lea's grinning face came into view. "I knew it was you staring holes in my door. Stop stalling and come in already, I want to sleep"

"As usual", Isa replied, at ease again after noticing Lea's good mood.

"Very funny", Lea complained, still smiling.

Then, to Isa's surprise, Lea immediately climbed into his bed, leaving part of the blanket turned, as if inviting Isa to lay on the other side.

Isa took a step in his direction. "You're not going to.."

"Pretend that I wanted to sleep on the floor?", Lea finished for him, laughing. "We're too old for that, come on"

Trying to keep calm, Isa kept repeating in his mind that it changed nothing. Yes, maybe the routine did shift a little, but the end result was still the same, so there really was no reason to panic.

He finally laid down as well and covered himself with the blanket. Isa was still adjusting himself, not knowing if he should sleep on his back or look away, when Lea suddenly scooted closer.

Isa glanced at him, expecting him to immediately distance himself again, but Lea didn't move. He just looked back at Isa.

"Aren't you a little too close?", he muttered.

Lea huffed but rolled back. Isa didn't seem happy yet.

"What now?"

"You're staring at me"

"Can't I even look at you?", Lea complained in a mocking tone.

Isa glared a little. He felt a little bad about being suddenly so cold, but the current situation was too surreal to put him at ease. "I guess it's not illegal. I have no idea why you would want to, though"

Lea smiled. "Don't play dumb"

"I'm not", Isa replied, genuinely confused, and Lea sighed.

"I guess I just keep misunderstanding you, then. Nevermind"

He tried to roll on his other side, so he could face the wall and sleep, but Isa placed a hand on his shoulder. "Wait", he said, worried. Of what, he didn't actually know; he just knew that, if he let the moment pass, they wouldn't have the same conversation in a long time. And he desperately needed to know if what Lea was hinting at was the same thing he was thinking about.

"What do you mean?", Isa asked.

Lea stared at him again. "This morning... no, forget it. It's not that important, actually"

"Lea wait-"

"It's fine", Lea interrupted him, smiling. "We should just sleep. Goodnight, Isa"

Isa didn't feel like smiling. He muttered a 'goodnight' back at his friend and closed his eyes to try and calm down. He felt weird. Almost sad, as if he'd just lost his chance at something.

For a moment, he had almost thought that Lea was going to tell him he reciprocated his feelings. Foolish. Of course they were just friends. Well, good friends, considering all that Lea had done for him, but it really was nothing more than what he'd done for Roxas and Xion. Love is just as strong when it's platonic.

And yet. Isa couldn't stop the waves of disappointment that threatened to drown him.

He kept wondering about whatever Lea wanted to tell him until he finally fell asleep.

When Isa woke up the next morning, he almost thought he had dreamt the whole evening. After a short glance around the room, Lea’s room, bathed in Twilight Town’s soft light, and after a deep sigh, he realised it had actually happened. Would Lea be mad at him, or at least disappointed, for not getting what he was trying to say?

He was almost tempted to move a bit to his left and find out if Lea was still there, not having the courage to simply look, but of course he was. Of course Lea was still sleeping. When wasn't he sleeping? 

Even if he were mad, he surely would not have gotten up so early in the morning just to get away from him.

Isa though, with completely different instincts, had no qualms about doing so, and he got out of bed as quietly as could, even if he knew that Lea wouldn't hear him anyway. 

Once outside Lea’s room, he stood in the silent hallway for a couple of minutes, still not completely lucid and not knowing where to go. There was no point in going to his own room and try to get back to sleep, was it? He’d just feel the stark contrast of his cold bed and feel even worse about everything.

He wandered into the kitchen and sat at the table, taking his head between the palms of his hands; he did regret his decision at least a little, but he didn't want to make the situation any more awkward. He wanted to stop thinking about it.

With another sigh, Isa got up and started fishing for proper breakfast ingredients from around the kitchen. 

Somehow, the fridge was almost empty already. It might have had something to do with the fact that they had bought mostly useless stuff, instead of actual, meal-worthy food, but the thought that they’d need to go back to the store did not bother Isa at all. He liked how mundane grocery shopping was.

He liked how mundane everything was starting to feel.

Isa went on with his morning routine, leaving three covered plates on the table, full of the same pancakes he had just finished eating, then retreating to his room to get dressed.

As he got ready for the day ahead, he had to stop and realise that, actually, there was nothing to get ready for; they had nothing planned for the day. It was the millionth time that a similar thought stopped him in his tracks, but there was no higher purpose to submit to. He could do whatever he wanted to do.

Then, what did he want to do?

As simple as the answer was, it came to him immediately: he wanted to go grocery shopping.

Feeling weirdly giddy, Isa almost rushed to the living room, where they kept Ansem's card on a shelf. He pocketed it and replaced it with a simple sticky note. 'Went grocery shopping'.

And, before he could have any second thoughts about not waking Lea and asking him to keep him company, Isa left the apartment, smiling.

Two hours and several bags of impulse purchases later, Isa was back in the kitchen, unsuccessfully trying to organise all the food he'd bought.

The sound of quiet footsteps announced someone coming to snoop in on him, and Isa turned just in time to see Lea, still in his pajamas, almost trip on one of the grocery bags left on the floor.

Isa braced himself for a snide comment, clearly remembering how his arguments with Axel always ended up, but Lea looked weirdly relaxed, despite everything.

"Are we expecting guests?"

"Not that I know of"

"Then what's with all these snacks?", Lea asked again, amused.

Isa lowered his gaze. "I think I got carried away"

Lea laughed. "That's good, though. I'm proud of you. You really needed to stop being so strict and weird"

He paused. "I'm not...weird"

"But you admit to being strict?"

"I do have some self-awareness"

Stepping closer, Lea laughed again, but didn't reply. He seemed to be interested in the grocery bags on the counter.

"Did you divide the snacks by type?", Lea asked, confused.

Isa followed his gaze. He had, actually. One bag was full of chocolate, another was full of chips, and another full of frozen pizza. He had even sorted all the different beverages he'd picked up. All the healthier food choices had been sorted as well, before he’d managed to arrange them on their shelves.

"Maybe you won't ever stop being uptight", Lea added. "But I guess that's fine too. I got used to it by now, and I think I'd miss it"

Isa was a little taken aback by that. "You didn't seem so 'used to it' a couple of months ago. Still an hypocrite, I see"

Lea smirked. "A traitor by nature, you could say"

‘That's not the same thing’, Isa wanted to reply. ‘That's not what I was trying to say’, he kept repeating in his mind. Even Lea seemed like he was waiting for some sort of rebuttal, but words would just not come to Isa's voice.

He tried to put a hand on the counter to steady himself, but he moved faster than he anticipated, and smacked his palm so hard it stung. At least, the brief pain gave him some clarity.

"My head is spinning again", he murmured, and Lea was immediately stepping forwards, even closer.

Lea's hands stopped just before he could touch Isa's arms, wanting to help him somehow, but not sure if that was the right way to go about it. Then, Isa stumbled, and Lea had no choice but to get over himself and hold his friend up.

Gently, he tried to move him towards one of the chairs, where Isa let himself fall.

Isa had no idea what was happening to him. It clearly stemmed from Lea's comment of being a traitor, as he had been completely fine up until that moment, but he couldn't understand why he was reacting like that.

He didn't feel nauseous, thankfully, but his head was throbbing like crazy, and he was suddenly feeling hotter, as if he had a fever too. Also, he could see that Lea was talking to him, but he couldn't hear what he was actually saying.

Lea stood up and disappeared from Isa's field of vision, reappearing after a moment, as something cold was pushed into Isa's hands.

Slowly, Isa managed to look down, recognising a glass full of water; he didn't feel like he'd be able to raise it without spilling most of it, though, so he just waited. He barely noticed Lea pulling another chair close to him and sitting down as well, but facing its backrest, so he could prop his crossed arms on top of it.

They sat like that for who knows how long, in almost complete silence; Isa still staring at the glass in his hands, and Lea looking anywhere but towards his friend, probably assuming he'd just make him feel worse.

At some point, Isa managed to drink some water, and Lea took that as his cue to finally look at him. "Are you feeling a little better?"

"Yes. I have no idea why that happened", he replied, still trembling.

"Same here", Lea frowned. "But it's fine if you're still shaken up by anything that relates to the Organization. I think we all are, you know?"

Isa nodded. "Though it doesn't feel like I have a right to be shaken up. A good portion of it was my fault too"

"Well, you didn't have much of a choice"

"But I did. We all did. Any of us could have befriended Roxas and Xion. Any of us could have left, but you were the only one who actually did it"

Lea sighed. "You're right on that, and I do understand how you're feeling. I made the right call in the end, but I made plenty of mistakes too"

Isa looked up at Lea again and, for the first time in a long while, he could imagine and understand his suffering; and emphasize with it too, now that his heart was fully functioning again.

"You're thinking about Vexen", he stated, and Lea immediately nodded.

"Among other things, of course, but yeah", Lea added. "He didn't seem angry at me when I met him in Radiant Garden… well, no more than usual. But it was still weird to experience"

More silence followed his words, as neither of them knew what to say; then, Lea moved his hand towards Isa's, and stilled with his palm facing up.

Isa placed his now empty glass on it, and Lea snorted, but still got up to leave it in the sink.

"I'm not mocking you", Lea said after he noticed Isa's inquisitive look. "It's just that this wasn't the reason why I held my hand out like that"

Isa raised an eyebrow. "What was it then?"

Lea shrugged. "I just wanted to hold your hand"

"Why would you want that?"

"Why not?", and he moved his hand exactly how he'd moved it before.

Isa's eyes grew wide. He might have blushed. "I'm not going to hold your hand"

"I can't believe you're still being rude to me!", Lea started to mockingly complain. "First, you had breakfast on your own without making anything for me and the kids, now you don't even want to hold my hand! This isn't-"

"What are you talking about? I made pancakes for you all", Isa immediately interrupted, slightly offended even while recognising that it was just a joke. "I left three plates out on the table"

Lea looked back at the table, covered by a total of four grocery bags and zero plates. "Well, there's nothing here"

Isa got up and started scanning around the kitchen. "There", he pointed at the counter in a corner, where a pile of several unwashed plates was piled up, so out of sight it was definitely on purpose.

"Oh those two evil little…", Lea muttered before taking a deep breath. "They could have at least washed the plates, you know? I'm so disappointed"

But Isa was already laughing so heartily he couldn't even try to stop; after a brief glance at him, Lea couldn't help but join his laughter.

“You know what? I’ll call them”, Lea added after a while, walking back to his room to get his gummiphone.

“Roxas isn’t picking up”, he announced as soon as he walked back into the kitchen. “Still trying to avoid the consequences of his actions, I see. I’ll try calling Xion”

Isa kept laughing and failing to stop for the whole two minutes it took for the call to go through and for Xion to actually accept it.

Lea scowled at her through the small screen. “Did you two eat my pancakes?”

“No”, Xion replied.

“Yes”, Roxas replied as well, out of view, and Xion turned towards him, a betrayed expression on her face.

“And you didn’t even wash the plates”, Lea said in a stern voice. “I’m grounding you. You’re grounded for life! No more sea-salt ice cream for you two”

Roxas poked his head in, looking incredibly smug. “We’re eating ice cream right now, what are you gonna do about it?”

Xion tried to push him away. “Stop it, I don’t want to be grounded because of you!”

“Oh is that Lea?”, asked someone else out of view, probably Pence. “Hi Lea!”

“Hi Pence, are you guys at the kiosk?”

“Yeah!”

Xion immediately turned the other way, probably looking at Pence. “Why did you tell him?”

Roxas laughed, then moved his hand towards the camera, as if he were trying to grab the gummiphone. “Hang up on him, let’s get out of here”

“Wait-”, both Xion and Lea tried to say, but the call disconnected immediately.

“Let’s race to the kiosk”

Isa smirked. “Who’s being childish now?”

“Come on! We might still catch them”

They didn’t of course. By the time Isa and Lea arrived at the small open space where the kiosk usually stood, the two criminals and their accomplices were nowhere to be seen.

“Figures”, Lea muttered, walking around aimlessly.

Behind him, Isa snorted. “As if this wasn’t just a ploy to eat ice cream for breakfast”

Lea looked back at him with a bright grin. “Well, I do have to cheer up somehow”, and he walked towards the kiosk. “Two sea-salt ice creams, please!”, he told the vendor.

“Ah”, the man sounded apologetic. “We’re all out, sadly. A group of teenagers just emptied our stocks”

Lea stared at him, looking dangerously close to losing his mind. “What? Again?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me several months ago: haha what if re-mind comes out before I finish this fic? :)
> 
> Me now: oh no
> 
> I guess this fic is 0% canon compliant now! Congratulations to me! I probably won't go back and remove the tag because I'm lazy, though. Sorry!
> 
> Also we're officially halfway there I guess? I will finish this disaster, I promise, but (and you probably have noticed this on your own by now) the next chapters won't ever be added on a regular schedule. Ever again. Yay me!


End file.
